


A Rose, a Stone, an Unfound Door

by ishafel



Category: Dark Tower - Stephen King
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-13
Updated: 2011-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/161993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishafel/pseuds/ishafel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The only thing at the top of the Tower worth having was the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Rose, a Stone, an Unfound Door

The first time, the second, and as many times after them as you could count on a score of hands and not have fingers to spare—it ends as it began. With Roland, alone, his father's guns forsaken and only the horn on his belt to be his sigul, the horn of Arthur of Eld. For those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, and not even Roland can correct his course all at once.

How many errors did he make, on the road to the Tower? How many small betrayals, how many losses of faith? Each one another time around, another circle, and each circle smaller. Until he knows where it is he went wrong, the last and final time.

When Susannah went through the Door, and Oy with her, and Roland was left with Mordred and Patrick side by side and staring at him. When he knelt, once more, defeated as the day was breaking. Because this time it was dawn. And Mordred fidgeted, poking at the fire, anxious to begin the day's work, to finish their quest. Anxious to reach the Tower. And Patrick never lifted the tip of his pencil from the paper. This time Roland dropped his gun and the horn into Mordred's lap and left ka behind to his son, the last of the line of Arthur Eld.

He reached for the knob of the Unfound Door a second time that morning, and felt the fingers of his ruined right hand close once more around it. It was an ordinary door now, and not a miracle, but it opened when he turned the knob.

Roland stepped through. He left the Tower behind, and Mordred with it. He stepped through into New York, Central Park in December, only a moment behind Susannah.

And they were all there, all waiting for him, in the clearing in the snow in the cold in the year of 99. They were wearing red and green, and Susannah a green hat, and Oy a set of antlers like a little deer. And Jake and Susannah clutched cups of steaming chocolate, but Eddie's cup was red and white and Roland recognized the letters. They spelled Coca-Cola.


End file.
